Funding a memorial scholarship: Young man’s legacy lives on in generous family’s cookbook

Looking over the recipes for holiday favorites in the cookbook they created, “A Legacy of Love,” are Ashleigh Pritchett, from left, Mary Ewell and Barbara Vaughan. Sales support a scholarship in memory of Richard Pritchett. Photo by Betty Wrenn Day

Cookbooks, one of the most popular types of book in print form, are compiled, printed and put on the market for sale for many purposes. But perhaps the intent behind "A Legacy of Love" is more heartfelt than others.

Following the death of Richard Allan Pritchett in 2002 in an automobile accident, his family established the Richard A. Pritchett Memorial Scholarship in 2003. For 10 years this family has been awarding $500 scholarships to Mathews High School students. "To date there have been 15 scholarships awarded in Richard’s memory," commented his aunt Mary Ewell. "To this point it has been a family run selection process, and not an easy one," said Ashleigh Pritchett, "but we are going to the application process very soon."

Adding to many programs such as snow cone sales at Little League baseball games and Corn Hole tournaments, this devoted family pursued yet another method to raise money for the scholarship. They published "A Legacy of Love," a cookbook containing 250 recipes. This was Mary’s creation, a lady who loves to cook, collects cookbooks, and grew up with good cooks all around her. "We all got together and decided we would send our request to family members and anyone we knew via Facebook, Twitter and e-mails. We listed eight categories and asked for as many recipes as they could send. It was unbelievable how people responded once the word got out. None of us had ever done a cookbook before, but working with the printer we got it done," Mary said. "It was my mother, Barbara Vaughan, who gave the book its name. We ordered 300 books at first and they sold out immediately. We reordered and they are still selling, but we want to keep selling as many as possible. We set the price at $10; a price we thought would make it available to more people. All money from sales go to the scholarship."